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kristindh 's review for:
Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology
by Leah Remini
I am completely fascinated by the cult that is Scientology. It's amazing to me that this cult has amassed such wealth and such a large following on such a banana pants concept. I mean, seriously????? The dude was a science fiction writer and created a "religion" based on his science fiction fantasies. Gimme a friggin' break.
There were a lot of fascinating tidbits in here for me that made sense how someone could get sucked into Scientology. Her mother was a bit of a free spirit hippie type with a verbally abusive soon to be ex-husband when she joins the church. Leah and her sister are very young when they join the church and I can see how as a young person you can get sucked into that sort of community. Where even though it's a bit nutso, you've got a group of people around you, helping you when you need it, helping you find a job when you are desperate, a couch or a floor to sleep on when you are broke and homeless. And as a kid, they don't treat you like a kid. Tell me what kid wouldn't like that??? I don't have to go to school anymore and you treat me like an adult??? As a young kid like Leah who is already a bit of a rebel, I can see her and other kids like her saying, "Yup, sign me up."
That being said, I was subjected to my fair share of crazy religions as a child. I grew up with a parent who was very susceptible to cult like religions and I got dragged right along with her to every one of them. The community feeling of it was fun, I guess - a whole set of friends outside of my school friends - but frankly, the church stuff didn't appeal to me AT ALL and even at a young age it all seemed very extreme and a bit much. We would stay at church for hours and hours. I remember being in church for 4 and 6 and 8 hours at a time on a Sunday. As a kid, that felt brutal. It was like having to go to school on the weekends and frankly, it cut into my sleeping schedule and that's not cool. I am an adult who needs an excessive amount of sleep. I was no different as a child and I didn't appreciate having to wake up at the butt crack of anyone's dawn to spend 8 hours in church with a bunch of people doing and saying weird stuff. I know...I'm a horrible person, but I'm okay with that. I came to terms with that at 15 or 16 when I was finally given the option of whether or not I wanted to go to church anymore and I promptly turned over, pulled the blankets over my head, went back to sleep and didn't go to church again until I got married in one 10 years later.
I'm not surprised that the LA center is the largest Scientology center. Creative types, especially actors, who are insecure from continually being rejected at work and life are yearning for validation and I guess Scientologist gives them that. Or maybe they are distracted by so many BS courses that they don't have enough time to think about anything else. But let's be frank here, I would have kicked them all to the curb the first time that they try to strong arm me into a large donation. If it's true that so many of their members are in debt or losing homes and livelihoods trying to achieve this "religion," I mean, I just don't understand. It's one thing to tithe. It's another thing for your tithing to leave you destitute.
So crazy...so fascinating.
There were a lot of fascinating tidbits in here for me that made sense how someone could get sucked into Scientology. Her mother was a bit of a free spirit hippie type with a verbally abusive soon to be ex-husband when she joins the church. Leah and her sister are very young when they join the church and I can see how as a young person you can get sucked into that sort of community. Where even though it's a bit nutso, you've got a group of people around you, helping you when you need it, helping you find a job when you are desperate, a couch or a floor to sleep on when you are broke and homeless. And as a kid, they don't treat you like a kid. Tell me what kid wouldn't like that??? I don't have to go to school anymore and you treat me like an adult??? As a young kid like Leah who is already a bit of a rebel, I can see her and other kids like her saying, "Yup, sign me up."
That being said, I was subjected to my fair share of crazy religions as a child. I grew up with a parent who was very susceptible to cult like religions and I got dragged right along with her to every one of them. The community feeling of it was fun, I guess - a whole set of friends outside of my school friends - but frankly, the church stuff didn't appeal to me AT ALL and even at a young age it all seemed very extreme and a bit much. We would stay at church for hours and hours. I remember being in church for 4 and 6 and 8 hours at a time on a Sunday. As a kid, that felt brutal. It was like having to go to school on the weekends and frankly, it cut into my sleeping schedule and that's not cool. I am an adult who needs an excessive amount of sleep. I was no different as a child and I didn't appreciate having to wake up at the butt crack of anyone's dawn to spend 8 hours in church with a bunch of people doing and saying weird stuff. I know...I'm a horrible person, but I'm okay with that. I came to terms with that at 15 or 16 when I was finally given the option of whether or not I wanted to go to church anymore and I promptly turned over, pulled the blankets over my head, went back to sleep and didn't go to church again until I got married in one 10 years later.
I'm not surprised that the LA center is the largest Scientology center. Creative types, especially actors, who are insecure from continually being rejected at work and life are yearning for validation and I guess Scientologist gives them that. Or maybe they are distracted by so many BS courses that they don't have enough time to think about anything else. But let's be frank here, I would have kicked them all to the curb the first time that they try to strong arm me into a large donation. If it's true that so many of their members are in debt or losing homes and livelihoods trying to achieve this "religion," I mean, I just don't understand. It's one thing to tithe. It's another thing for your tithing to leave you destitute.
So crazy...so fascinating.